Life Is Sacred (Part 1 of 2)

Scripture is clear that God values all life But today on Truth for Life, we'll find out why human life is considered particularly sacred, distinct from the rest of God's creation. We're continuing our series Pathway to Freedom.

Here's Alistair Begg. In Hebrew, the two words in Hebrew simply say, No murder. No murder. In 1963, in Scotland, there were two convictions of murder.

I remember I was eleven years old. Last year in Chicago, there were eighteen every week. The sixth commandment is phenomenally relevant in our world today. The sixth commandment does not negate the death penalty—I'm not going to address that now—but the death penalty is actually found in Exodus 21 and verse 13.

And Exodus 21, 13, which points out that anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death, is clearly not contradicting Exodus chapter 20 verse 13. But that's another matter for another time. I'd like to tackle this subject under four headings this morning. First of all, considering with you the matter of authority, and then the problem of hostility, and then the issue of sanctity.

Actually, just three will be fine. First of all, then, the matter of authority. The matter of authority. Fundamental to this sixth commandment, as with all commandments, is the issue of the existence of a personal creator God. In Exodus chapter 20 and verse 2, you read, I am the Lord your God. And then in verse 3, the phrase begins, You shall have no other gods before me. And the ability of God to bring this divine pronouncement upon his creation is directly founded upon the fact that he himself is none other than the Creator.

I am, therefore you shall. The Bible tells us that the universe exists, and the reason that it has form and meaning is because it was created personally and purposefully by a creator God. The very fact of all that we see around us is, says the Bible, as a result of the existence of a God who personally and purposefully created each part and each aspect of all that is his own. The Bible goes on to say that mankind has been made in the image of God, and that there is a continuity between our finite selves and our infinite Creator.

And this infinite Creator stands behind the universe and provides for it its final source of meaning. It is on account of God's creative handiwork that we have personality, that we have morality, that we have dignity, and that we have value. There is no other basis for the personality, morality, dignity, and value of man, save than that it is founded in the fact of this personal, infinite Creator God. Consequently, the Bible also teaches that there is a qualitative distinction between man—that is, men and women, I use man generically—and other organic life. We are not simply part of the animal kingdom.

We are certainly not part of the flora kingdom. Our mannishness, as Francis Schaeffer put it years ago, points out the very fact of our distinction with the rest of created order. The mannishness of man. What does Schaeffer mean by that?

Well, he means a number of things. For example, he points to the creativity of man. He points out that it is man rather than the animals who have created art. You don't see chimpanzees doing flower arranging. You don't see gorillas flying harrier jumpjets.

At least not—I haven't seen them at all. And the very fact of our mannishness distinguishes us from the rest of the creative order. In some strange way, our fear of death is an indication of the difference between ourselves and the rest of creation. The leaves on the trees have not been hanging up for the last month, looking at one another and saying, you know, I'm so afraid to fall off this branch here and get sucked up by that big thing.

The prospect of this is awesome to me. The leaves have no such notion at all. They're obviously inanimate. They cannot think.

And there is no apparent indication in the animal kingdom of there being much difference there. The mannishness of man is revealed in our ability to verbalize. We are the ones who can speak. In the minds of men and women, our minds are able to conceive, they're able to recollect, they are able to project. And in fact, no honest philosopher is going to deny this.

Because from the dawn of history, man has by his art and by his accomplishments distinguished himself from the rest of creation. And we are not to be in any doubt about this. We are not to be confused about it. The Bible is very clear.

It's very ordered in what it teaches. God created, he is an infinite creator God, he made man, he distinguished man from the rest of the creative order. Man was made in the image of God unlike the rest.

Man was given a never-dying soul. And no other view of the world gives an adequate explanation of what we see around us. Now, a view of the world is simply the answer to the question, Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here?

Where am I going? And does it really matter? If you write those questions down on a sheet of paper, and then you write your answers to them, the things that you write as an answer are your worldview. That's how you explain your existence, that's how you explain the universe, that's how you explain your world. And traditionally, the humanistic perspective of the Western world has been left struck dumb before these issues. The pantheistic worldview that has come from the East has also had little to say. And at this point in the late 20th century here in our Western world, as men and women have recognized that this kind of mechanistic, scientific rationalism holds no answers, they find themselves now on a quest for spirituality, which will perhaps explain to them their reason for existence.

So what we have is this strange amalgamation of Western individualism and Eastern mysticism, which produces some of the most unbelievably crazy nonsense that we have ever seen in the whole history of the nation. But the Bible is really clear. The Bible is very clear. God is an authoritative God. God spoke, and the world came into being. God is an infinite Creator.

God is personally involved with that which he has created. And behind this sixth commandment—"You shall not murder"—lies the authority of the Creator God. Now, the reaction to authority is one of hostility.

That's our second point. The matter of authority, the problem of hostility. The problem of hostility is aptly summarized by Paul in Romans chapter 8, when in the course of a wider argument he makes it clear that the natural man or the mind of sinful man is hostile to God. Romans chapter 8 verse 6, the mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

So we know a number of things then about men and women as created. Number one, they have sinful minds, and they don't like the idea that God is in control. Therefore, they do not submit to God's law, nor are they able ultimately to do so.

They are controlled by their sinful natures, and therefore they cannot please God. So instead of acknowledging God's creative work, man chooses to believe instead that the universe has existed forever, in some form, and that its present form just happened as a result of chance, events, way back in time. So John Baez, the grandmother of folk music, says, We are the orphans in an age of no tomorrows. We have no yesterday, we've got no tomorrow. We are lost in time. What is she doing? She's expressing her view of the world. The evolutionary concept of our existence starts with an impersonal beginning plus time plus chance.

That's the explanation. There was always something around, there was an impersonal force, then we have the passage of time and we have a number of chance occurrences, and then, Hey, welcome to the world! Hey, good morning! Glad you arrived, baby.

Welcome to a meaningless, absurd universe. Your arrival is significant insofar only as it makes me feel certain emotions, but you have no reason to be at all, and we might as well tell you that right up front. Right up front. If we were honest, we would tell them that right up front, because it is that worldview which allows us to suck them out of the womb before they arrive, because we believe them to have no reason to exist.

Right up front. Who expresses it best? I think Woody Allen. You know, he's the guy who said, It's not that I'm afraid to die, it's just that I don't want to be there when it happens. The way he lives, the things he says, what he does, what he writes, what he acts, is an expression of who and what he is.

He's honest in that respect. In Annie Hall, in a supposedly humorous line, he says, Mankind is left with alienation, loneliness, and emptiness verging on madness. Life, he says, is divided into the horrible and the miserable. So you've got two roads you can go.

You can go the horrible road, or we have the miserable road. But the fact is that we're all living on the verge, the cliff edge, of total madness. Now, if you think about it, just turn your newspapers over and read them.

Read some of the magazines and watch the news reports, and that doesn't seem so far-fetched an idea, does it? It actually seems like we are living on the verge of total madness. So much of what goes on around us, we say, This is unbelievable. This is insanity.

Why? Because the law of God, the Maker's instructions that are here for all of time, have been taken, closed, shelved, stuck in a museum, and we, the modern men and women, will carry on fine by ourselves, thank you very much. We will live with an impersonal beginning, plus time, plus chance, and we'll make sense of it ourselves.

The problem of the rejection of God's authority is the problem of man's hostility. Paul Gauguin, is it? Is that how you pronounce his name?

I'm not good at the pronunciation of these names. I think that's him, the painter. Before he tried to commit suicide after his final painting, he scrawled on his painting, Whence come we? What are we? Whither do we go? He says, What's the point of all this stuff? Where did I come from? Why do I exist? And where am I going?

The answer of modern man to, Where did I come from? is nowhere. Why do you exist? No reason. Where are you going? No place. P.S.

Have a nice life. Why do we labor this? Why might we intend to see this? Because listen, loved ones, this morning, unless we understand that this is the essential difference between ourselves and our non-believing friends, unless we understand the perspective of our neighbors and our colleagues who study with us in university and who walk the halls with us and take business trips with us and who play ball with us, unless we understand where the discrepancy lies in our thinking and we are able to dialogue concerning that truth, all we'll ever be left with is sloganeering and a kind of knee-jerk reactionism. And frankly, conservative evangelicalism has got sloganeering down to a fine art. We know the slogans we're supposed to shout, because somebody on the radio told us what we're supposed to shout. They told us which box we're supposed to tick. They gave us the pre-group program material for what conservative evangelicalism believes, and then we'll just tick all that, and we'll make those phone calls and call all those people, and we don't know why in the world necessarily we will, but we will, because it's what you're supposed to do.

Meanwhile, our friends, they're getting their stuff sent to them, take their box, make their phone call, embrace their cause, and do their deal. Until we recognize what underpins the convictions, what underpins the convictions, we can't dialogue at all concerning them. Now, if you think about it, neither pragmatism nor emotionalism is able to stand against the tide of the present evaluation of human life. Let me say that to you again, because you didn't get that.

I know. Pragmatism, on the one hand, which simply says, I don't think we should kill anybody because of the utilitarian idea. You know, don't kill them.

We'll have to put them somewhere. All right? So there's a utilitarian notion in it. I don't think we should kill people because it's not a nice idea. Or emotionalism. Well, I… No, I don't think so.

Okay? Neither pragmatism nor emotionalism can stem the tide of the devaluation of human life. Because there are a lot of pragmatists around, a lot of emotionalists around, a lot of radicals still left over from the sixties. Now, the guys from the sixties, they were really radical about peace and life and love and everything, right? Could they do it? No, they couldn't do it, because they had radicalism without roots. They had a program without principles.

So how is it possible, then, for this transformation to take place? There needs to be the principles, a firm set of principles, expressive of a biblical worldview, providing an adequate reason for the unique value of all human life. That, then, provides the substance and the basis for us exalting the sanctity of life and seeking to correct those who would devalue human existence. Until we engage our friends and our neighbors in that kind of dialogue, our agnostic friends and neighbors, then we're not having any discussion with them at all.

Do you know that? The whole abortion debate is not a debate. It's a rabble.

It's one group on one side shouting their slogans and another group on the other side shouting their slogans. And we need to understand that the reason this individual shouts this way—I don't accept it, but I know why they do—because they believe that the existence of man began in an impersonal way, plus time, plus chance. They believe that man is simply a social security number. He is a unit. His significance is only in the spectrum of the utility of his life. As long as it is going well, and as long as he's not sick, and as long as he likes it, then he will continue with it.

But if he grows sick or he doesn't like it or he needs to curtail it, then he'll pull the plug on it or someone else will do it for him. We've got to show them that the reason they believe that is because their perspective on the world is wrong. They are logically illogical.

There is a logic within their closed view, but their closed view is wrong. We need at the same time to be able to articulate to our agnostic friends that we are not simply about crusades for certain slogans and ideas. But the reason that we uphold the sixth commandment and the sanctity of human life is because, unlike them, we believe that there was a moment in time, a millisecond, in which a Creator God who has always existed made creation. And as a result of that, he established in the creation of man morality, a sense of right and wrong, dignity as having been made in his image, personality as distinct from the rest, and intrinsic value because of who he is. Now, we then need to go on, as they will say, well, how in the world did we get in the predicament in which we find ourselves?

Then we will move from Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2 into Genesis chapter 3, and we will show how the fall of man leaves men and women today in a world not the way that God created it, not the world that God intended, but the world in the way in which man has spoiled it. You see, our neighbors—I drove behind a car yesterday that it said, Pro-family, Pro-kids, Pro-choice. Okay? All right? Now, don't all start nodding your head like a bunch of kneejerkers. Listen a minute. Listen!

That was driven by a young couple. Now, why do they say that? They say that, presumably if we could engage them in dialogue, because of what their view of the world is. Now, we know that that's biblically wrong, but we need to shut up long enough to allow them to talk out their notions which underpin it, to dismantle for them, graciously and kindly, the silly nonsequiturs in their argument, and to share with them the wonder of a personal creator God who has revealed himself in Jesus. Because the only hope is the redemption of their lives, not the instruction of their minds.

And if we think to win by shouting louder, we're crazy. Now, if this is too philosophical for us this morning—this is philosophical theology or theological philosophy—I want you to know that I'm looking forward this afternoon to talking to some fourth- and fifth-grade children here in the church. And the kind of questions that they have asked me—I'm supposed to answer all these questions between 5.30 and 6.30—are questions like, Who created God? Why was God never born? Did God really die? Does God love Satan?

When Jesus died, if Jesus is God, why didn't everything go crazy and out of control? So, for those of you who want to have a Christian experience that can be reduced to seven little slogans to make you happy, five verses that you learned can carry on your way, but I've got to tell you that the kids at your house are asking more sensible questions than many of us are even thinking about. And they are our tomorrow. They are our children.

And they are on the forefront of these issues. Now, the authority matter, the hostility matter, and the sanctity matter. Let's come to the issue, then, of the sanctity of life. The sanctity of life is underpinned by this view of the world, by the fact that God is creator, that he is personally involved, that man is hostile to that truth, but it doesn't alter the fact of the sanctity of life. Human life is sacred, says the Bible, first, because it is God's gift, and secondly, because man bears God's image.

Get a read of this in Genesis 1 and Genesis 9. Human life is the most precious and sacred thing in all the world, and to end it or to direct its ending is God's prerogative alone. So we honor God by respecting his image in each other, which means consistently preserving and furthering the welfare of one another, especially as it relates to life.

Each of our lives has meaning, because each of us was personally and purposefully created, and we bear the image of our creator. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. We've heard today part one of a message titled, Life is Sacred, and if you've been benefiting from this in-depth study of the Ten Commandments, maybe you'd like to own the entire series.

All 12 messages are available on a single USB drive for just five dollars. There's also an accompanying Pathway to Freedom study guide. It's a helpful way to explore how each of the commandments applies to your life. Look for the USB and the study guide in our online store at truthforlife.org. Now, how would you like to start every day being reminded of the Gospel?

Well, if so, we've got just the book for you. Alistair's newest book is titled Truth for Life, 365 Daily Devotions. This is a scripture-based devotional. Each day you'll read a Bible passage, followed by insights from Alistair explaining the passage in depth.

The daily readings take maybe two to three minutes, but you'll find there's great benefit in reflecting on what Alistair has written. This devotional is perfect for private or family Bible reading. It'll help keep you in God's Word each day in the new year. The Truth for Life devotional also makes an excellent gift. It's a great book to share if your church is looking for a resource to encourage new members or new believers. You can request a copy of the Truth for Life daily devotional when you make a donation today. Just click the image for the book Truth for Life, 365 Daily Devotions on our app, or visit our website at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. Most of us assume we've kept the sixth commandment because we've never murdered anyone, but listen tomorrow as we'll hear part two of today's message and discover just how easy it is for any of us to break the sixth commandment through what Alistair calls hidden murder. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.